Zucchini Cakes with Tomato Relish

Sometimes I get a hankering for fried things. This was one of those times. I have been getting a lot of zucchini in my box lately but as summer comes to a close I know that I won’t be seeing much of them until next summer.

This is a super easy recipe, just put the zucchini, cheese and onions through the grater attachment of the food processor and you’re more than halfway there.

I figured this was going to be one of the last opportunities I’d have to make these pancakes which I had been thinking about making for a while. I have been on a kick of making veggie and vegan patties and had seen some interesting recipes for zucchini cakes and they sounded so good.

The original recipe had these much thicker but I made them thinner because I wanted them to cook quicker.

I knew the cakes would probably need some kind of sauce on them and I had just enough tomatoes to pull off a relish.

Summer tomatoes, how I will miss you.

I learned about this technique from a vegetarian cookbook written by Crescent Dragonwagon. You can basically do it with any veggie. Just put the veggies in a cold pan with olive oil and garlic and then cook them very slowly over low heat. They get all nice and roasty and the garlic gets super sweet and aromatic.

This smells almost as amazing as it looks.

I did share these but I mostly ate them myself over a couple days. The pancakes were very thin, almost like crepes. I pulled them out of the fridge cold, put a spoonful of tomato relish in the middle of one and then rolled it up like a zucchini tomato taquito. It made an amazing meal and several delicious snacks.

Put about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan and then throw in the tomatoes and garlic. Put on low heat and cover for 20 minutes. Check occasionally to make sure they aren’t burning. When the tomatoes start to wither, take the top off to cook of any excess liquid. Add salt to taste.

In a medium bowl, combine the zucchini, eggs, onion, flour, Parmesan cheese, basil, and salt. Stir well enough to distribute ingredients evenly. NOTE: I put the grater attachment on my food processor and just ran the zucchini, cheese and onions through there.

Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drop zucchini mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls, and cook for a few minutes on each side until golden. You may have to do this in batches so have a platter lined with paper towels ready.

To serve, put a couple pancakes on individual plates and top with a little dollop of the tomatoes and some shredded Parmesan.